Behind Closed Doors
by smarty1989
Summary: A female D.B and a young witness appear to be unconnected but first impressions don't always count. Pasts will be revealed when past and present collide.Will the CSI's solve the mystery before it's too late. Rated T for violence and language.DL.Please r
1. Prologue

A/N – This fic is set sometime early in season 4. Be gentle this is my first CSI NY fic ever. Of course its DL.

I don't own any of the characters except Lizzie. However I do own all these little ideas that float around in my head.

Prologue

I look at the alarm clock by my bed, it's 6am and the sound of screaming toddlers has been ringing in my ears for what seems like forever. What can you expect when you live in a dump like this with dozens of other kids? The only difference is that I'm not a kid anymore and this place seems to get worse every day. Oh god… this is Saturday and I shouldn't be anywhere near alive yet.

I suppose I should tell you a bit about myself. My name is Lizzie, Elizabeth when I've done something wrong, and I'm 14 years old. I live in a children's home, yes it is as bad as it sounds, that's because my parents didn't want me. I haven't seen my parents since the day they dropped me off and I was only 2 weeks old so I don't remember anything. I was never adopted because I couldn't settle anywhere when I was younger and let's face it, as Seth from the O.C rightly put it, nobody wants a brand new teenager. I've learnt to accept that I don't have family so I'm determined to do right by my kids but that's a long way off right now.

So back to today, I have nothing planned. All of my friends are spending time with their families this weekend, so I'm all alone. You're probably thinking, what about all those other kids? Well the only other kids near my age are quite weird really. Amber is 12 and she doesn't talk to anyone all I've ever heard her say is yes and no. Jason and Ben are both 11 and the most annoying people I have ever met. I think I'm gonna go mad in here all day, I have to get out of here.

After showering and eating the cereal I have stashed under my bed I shout that I'm going out, not that anybody notices anyway. I decide to go for a walk through the park. As I walk along the street the cold air sends a shiver down my spine, a thick layer of frost covers the street signalling the coming of winter. Without noticing tears flow down my cheeks, that happens sometimes when I feel alone. I walk past the sea of people to the more secluded part of the park. I walk down towards my favourite spot, under the small stone bridge. I jerked back when I saw a foot beside mine. At first I thought it was a homeless person but as my eyes travelled along the body I saw this person was smartly dressed. As my eyes reached her head I had to fight the urge to vomit, her head had been smashed in, literally. I stood there frozen for what seemed like ages until I came out of my trance and screamed as loud as I could. I do feel quite sorry for anyone who was close by at that point because I let out an incredibly loud scream.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Danny and Lindsay arrive at the scene where Stella has begun taking photos.

"Looks nasty." Danny said looking at their victim.

"Yeah I hope you guys have already eaten." Stella replied frowning.

"You got an I.D yet?" Lindsay asked feeling her breakfast coming up.

"No, no purse, cell phone or cards."

Flack came over to join them.

"Did she say anything?" Stella asked

"Not a word, EMT's say she's in shock. Not that I'm surprised."

"Who?" Lindsay asked.

"Young girl over there found the body; the kid hasn't said a word to anyone. Won't even tell us her name." He replied

Lindsay looked at the girl, she was clearly distressed.

"I have an idea; look after my kit will you Danny I'll be back in five." She said.

True to her word she came back a few minutes later with a cup in her hand. She walked over and stood in front of the girl as the EMT's stepped away.

"Hi, there"

She looked up but still said nothing.

"Here, I thought you could use some hot chocolate to warm you up." She said noticing that she was shivering.

"Thank you." She replied quietly.

"My name is Lindsay Monroe."

"I'm Elizabeth Roberts but everyone calls me Lizzie." She replied responding to Lindsay's kind nature.

"Do you have a number for your parents?" Lindsay asked

"No, I don't. I don't even know what they look like." She said sadly.

Lindsay looked taken aback so Lizzie explained.

"I live at Oaktree House, it's a children's home."

Lindsay sighed; the poor kid didn't even have parents to comfort her after this. She knew she would probably need a lot from Danny when this case was over.

"Do you want to tell me what happened this morning?"

"I woke up early so I came to the park; I went to go to my favourite spot when I saw her." She replied looking over towards the body.

"Did you see anyone else around, anyone acting suspiciously?"

"I wasn't really paying attention, sorry." She said looking down at her hands.

"Its ok sweetheart you did really well." Lindsay said putting her arm round her

This had the opposite effect Lindsay had hoped and Lizzie burst into tears. Lindsay put the cup down and tried to calm her down. She looked across at Danny who looked at her sympathetically. Lizzie pulled back and wiped her eyes.

"Sorry."

"It's ok you're doing better than me, I nearly threw up." Lindsay said smiling.

Lizzie laughed lightly, she didn't know what it was about Lindsay but she felt safe round her.

"How old are you anyway?" Lindsay asked.

"I just turned fourteen last week."

"Have you got a social worker or something like that?"

"I could give you the house number and address but it's usually pretty hectic there."

"Could you write it down here for me?" Lindsay asked handing her a notebook and a pen.

"Sure."

Lindsay looked up towards Flack who gave her the thumbs up when he saw the girl writing. She rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Here." Lizzie said handing her back the notebook and pen.

"Thank you. I'll arrange for someone to take you home." Lindsay said and she walked back over to Flack, Danny and Stella.

"How did you do that?" Flack said in disbelief.

"She's only a kid, young girls respond better to female officers after any kind of trauma. You're a detective you should know that." She said smirking.

Danny and Stella both laughed.

"What did she tell you?" Flack said trying to act professional despite Lindsay's put down.

"She came down here for a walk early this morning, seems like this is her usual spot. She was walking along and didn't notice our vic until she was standing right in front of her."

"Looks like her footprint here." Danny said pointing to a footprint in the dirt.

"Did you get the parents' number?" Stella asked.

"Nope. She's from Oaktree House."

"Man, I heard that place is pretty rough and overcrowded." Danny said

"It's why she comes here I think, to get away from it." Lindsay said sadly

"How old is she Linds?" Stella asked.

"Fourteen last week."

"I'll go take her home." Flack said and walked back over to the girl.

Stella, Danny and Lindsay carried on processing the scene.

In the car Flack was uncomfortable. They were stuck in traffic and the girl hadn't said a word to him, yet again. He was staring out the window when he heard her talk.

"Have you ever seen anything like that before?"

"You mean the body?"

"Yeah."

"Not quite like that, it was pretty horrible."

"I feel bad."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"I actually feel like I could eat."

He laughed; the kid did have a sense of humour. He looked at her in the mirror and saw she had a beautiful smile; he winked at her and carried on driving.

Lizzie felt a bit better after that. It was nice to know that there were good people out there; she just didn't come across them often where she came from. All she got where she lived was a snide comment on a good day. The bad days; well she didn't like to think about those let alone tell anyone. It was why she had such a hard time opening up to people and found it easier to keep up the façade.

She sighed as she saw the house come into view, she always dreaded coming back. As they walked in the front door it was chaos as usual. There were lots of young kids running riot and two adults sitting in the kitchen. They looked up when they saw Detective Flack.

"May we help you?" One of them asked

"My name is Detective Flack." He said pulling out his badge.

"Look we can't keep an eye on every single one. What did she do?" The woman said sneering at Lizzie.

Flack looked taken aback; Lizzie didn't seem at all like a trouble maker. In fact she seemed too normal for this place.

"She didn't do anything wrong. She discovered a dead body in the park this morning."

"So she's not a suspect?" The woman said sounding surprised.

"No m'am. It's not possible; she's not strong enough to have caused the impact wounds so she was ruled out immediately."

Flack took out his card and handed it to Lizzie.

"Call me if you need to." He said to her eyeing them suspiciously before leaving.

Lizzie's heart sped up as soon as he walked out the door. She was well aware of what was going to happen especially after she had brought the police to the house.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Flack headed up to the lab shortly after returning. Something about the carers at Oaktree had irked him. He went into the break room where Danny was sipping coffee and engrossed in a file.

"Hey man." Flack said as he walked in.

"She get home ok?"

"Yeah." Flack said.

"Is somethin' up?" Danny asked noticing his defeated look.

"The carers at Oaktree asked some weird questions. Like she was a trouble maker, hell they even asked if she was a suspect."

"Well she's been in care. It messes kids up; though she didn't seem like that from what Lindsay said."

"I'll look into it, just in case we're missing something." Flack said leaving Danny confused.

Before he had time to think Lindsay and Stella entered and stood in front of him.

"Bunking off again Messer?" Lindsay said teasing him.

"Caught red handed eh?" He said holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"So have you done any work?" Stella said playing along.

"As a matter of fact I have. Peyton gave me the preliminary autopsy report. COD was severe head trauma which is obvious but she also had all of her fingers broken before she died."

"So someone attacked her, broke all her fingers then bashed her head in. Nice." Stella said sarcastically.

"This guy's brutal. We need to find him quick before he tortures anyone else." Lindsay said determinedly.

"I'm gonna go check in with Flack. I'll catch you guys later." Stella said and left the room.

Danny noticed Lindsay was staring into space.

"Hey Montana, you with me?"

"Wh…What?"

"Somethin' botherin' you?"

"Just a tough case you know." She said smiling weakly at him.

"The girl really got to you."

"It's just been a long day. We should get back to work." She said walking out the door.

Danny was getting worried about her; he hated it when she was so secretive. They had only been dating for about a month but he knew he was falling in love with her. Throughout that month they had become closer but sometime she would keep him at arms length. He was determined to find out what was up with her.

Lindsay walked along the corridor to the locker room. Her eyes started to fill up with tears _not now _she thought. She knew Danny was concerned but she couldn't tell him _he would hate me. _Only her family and best friend knew what happened and of course Mac as it was in her file. She prayed this case would end soon so she could try and forget about it. She hadn't noticed that Danny had followed her; he was standing in the doorway. Seeing her tears he sat down next to her, she instantly looked up the shock visible on her face.

"Danny…I…" She stuttered looking down.

"Look I'm not gonna force you to tell me but I want you to know that when you are ready I'm here to listen." He said looking at her.

"Thanks." She said not meeting his gaze.

He stood up and pulled her up with him, wrapping his arms around her small frame. She relaxed into him wrapping her arms round his waist as the tears continued to flow. Danny didn't know what else to do so he held her whilst stroking her hair until her sobs subsided.

Meanwhile Lizzie was lying on her bed; she turned her head slightly and saw it was only 10.30am. When she sat up she felt as if her head was about to explode. She walked over to the mirror and saw dried blood on her face coming from a cut on her forehead. Her back and stomach were badly bruised but her ribs didn't feel as if they had been broken or cracked which was one thing to be thankful for.

Back at the lab Flack was on his way to see Stella; he got some interesting information on Lizzie.

"Hey Stel." He said as he entered her office.

"Hey." She said smiling at him.

"You really need to hear this."

"Ok." She said looking a bit confused.

"I looked Lizzie up; you know to see if she'd been in any trouble at all. She's a straight A student, popular with teachers and other students. The carers at Oaktree are Melissa Stanford and Eric Hayes. When I took her back they acted like she'd been in trouble before but I found no police records on her at all."

"Well Melissa and Eric are obviously overstretched they probably see the kids as a nuisance."

"I think it's more than that. It was they way the looked at her that got me. They glared at her and didn't even ask her if she was alright. They've both been working there for over ten years; in that time you think there would be some emotional attachment but clearly not. Something's not right there."

Stella nodded in agreement it did sound slightly strange. Just then Lindsay walked in.

"We're hitting dead ends here Stel; this evidence is going nowhere."

"Peyton is still working on the skull impressions; so hopefully we'll get lucky."

Danny came striding in looking rather pleased with himself.

"I found out a bit more about her vic. She had a baby at 17 who was adopted. It gets better; the little girl is aged 8 and lives in New York."

"Where?" Lindsay asked hopefully.

"Park Avenue but she previously lived at Oaktree House."

"I knew it." Flack said looking at Stella.

"Danny; you and Lindsay go to Park Avenue and talk to the parents. Flack and I are going back to Oaktree House."

Danny and Lindsay drove to the house in silence. They would occasionally glance over at each other. When they were walking up the pathway Danny decided to break the ice a bit.

"Fancy a house like this Montana?"

"Nah, doesn't appeal to me in the slightest." She said jokingly smiling at him.

They knocked on the door and a tall blonde woman answered it.

"Can I help you?" She asked

"I'm Detective Monroe and this is Detective Messer; we're from the crime lab." Lindsay replied as she and Danny showed their badges.

"Please come in." She said stepping aside. After they passed her a look of worry clouded her face for a split second.

"We want to ask you a few questions about your daughter." Danny stated.

"Is she alright?"

"Yes ma'am she's fine."

"We wanted to ask you about her adoption."

"As far as we are concerned she is our daughter, no one else's."

"Have her biological parents ever contacted you or your daughter?"

"No. What's this about?"

"Her biological mother was murdered."

"I'm very sorry about that but it has nothing to do with our family." She said looking out the window; seeing her daughter and husband exit the car. Danny and Lindsay followed her gaze.

"We'll need to speak to your daughter. She may have spoken to her mother and not said anything." Lindsay said.

"I told you already I'm her mother not that tramp. Now I suggest you leave." She said coldly.

On the way back to the lab Lindsay was thinking about the way Mrs Daniels had acted. She didn't seem to be concerned that she was giving herself motive but did that mean she was innocent or guilty? The only thing they could do now was find the evidence that would give them their answers.

Stella and Flack were back at Oaktree questioning Melissa and Eric.

"It appears the victim that Elizabeth found was Sophie Andrews. Does that name ring a bell?" Flack said trying to hide his contempt for these two.

"It does sound familiar but we meet a lot of people in this job." Eric said nonchalantly.

"This may refresh your memory." Stella said handing over a photo from missing persons.

"Yeah on second thoughts I do remember her. Kid was Bethany; she was adopted by a couple who lived in Park Avenue."

"Seems a little odd that folks like that would come here." Flack said

"Look around Detective. We have too many kids who all need homes. It's easier and faster to adopt a kid from us."

"Yeah I'll bet." Flack replied.

"Have you seen Miss Andrews recently?" Stella asked

"She was here two days ago. She wanted to know where Bethany was. Of course we didn't tell her. I told her she would have to get a lawyer and the adoptive parent's permission first and she left." Melissa replied

"She didn't say where she was going?"

"No, I assumed she would drop it."

"Can I ask where you both were last night?"

"We were here doing our jobs."

"Can anyone vouch for that?" Flack asked

"Yes Elizabeth was up. She had a restless night." Eric said smiling.

"I'll go and get her." Melissa said disappearing upstairs.

Lizzie was on her bed sleeping when Melissa came bursting into her room. Lizzie sat up and was petrified that she had done something else wrong.

"The cops are back again. Come on, don't say anything stupid." Melissa hissed leading her down the stairs.

Lizzie's heart sank when she got down the stairs. Knowing who she had to lie to made it more difficult but she had become expert at it over the years.

"Hey." She said softly.

"We just need to ask you a couple of questions. That ok?" Stella asked.

"Sure." Lizzie replied smiling.

"What time you were you awake until last night?"

"It was late, about 2.30am."

"Eric and Melissa were up with you were they?"

"Yeah. I watched TV with them until I fell asleep." She said convincingly.

"Thank you."

"We'll be in touch." Flack said as they headed for the door.

_Put the last nail in the coffin why don't you._ Lizzie thought as they left.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry I know its been aaaages. I haven't abandoned the story and will do my best to update regularly xoxo

Chapter 3

Danny was working in the lab on the skull impressions Peyton had passed on to him. Lindsay walked into to see if he had come up with anything.

"You got anything yet?" She asked standing beside him.

"I think it's a gun."

"But our vic had no gun shot wounds. Why would someone go to the bother of killing her by hitting her over the head if they could shoot her?"

"Peyton found traces of GSR on her forehead. This guy obviously likes to torture his victims first then kill them in the most violent way possible."

"What could she have done that was so terrible?" Lindsay said sighing

"Maybe this isn't about her. It may be about the kid."

"I think Flack is right"

"Don't let him hear you say that" Danny said smirking

Lindsay smiled slightly, she couldn't help it

"Seriously; this has something to do with Oaktree. Something's not right here."

"What about the adoptive parents?"

"We have nothing to tie them to the crime scene. Their alibis are pretty solid."

"You think Elizabeth is lying?"

"Maybe not but she's young and impressionable."

"We have to find something to put Melissa or Eric at the crime scene."

Stella walked into the DNA lab where Adam was processing their evidence.

"Have you got anything on the Andrews case yet?" She asked

"I found foreign DNA on her wrists. It's female but not her daughter's. The mystery woman shared no alleles in common so she's not a relation."

"Its unlikely the killer was female judging by the force it took to create those head wounds."

"The epithelials were in liquid, tears to be precise."

"So the woman was either there or the killer transferred her tears to our vic."

"There's something else mixed in with the tears, minute traces of blood"

"There could be a second victim out there. Thanks Adam."

Danny and Lindsay were in the lab processing the vic's clothes.

"Ok all I got are these black fibres, different material to the vic's dress."

"Another dead end, great."

Stella walked into the lab.

"You get anything on the vic's clothes?" She asked

"Just these fibres." Danny replied

Stella took the evidence from him.

"Any idea where these could be from?" She asked

"Most likely a sweater." Danny replied.

"Adam found female DNA on our vic. It could be from another victim, Flack is looking into it."

"We looking for another victim?"

"Anything is possible at this stage."

Stella was in her office with Lindsay when Flack came striding in.

"You find anything?"

"Yes, Oaktree house was at the centre of some abuse allegations 12 years ago. A 5 year old boy died after falling down the stairs. The police were suspicious but never had enough evidence to make a case."

"Wow so all these kids could be in danger. Maybe that's why Sophie wanted to find her daughter."

"Maybe she threatened to go to the police." Lindsay suggested.

"Which would mean she had evidence. She spoke to one of those kids."

"We can't go back there with nothing to go on." Flack said

Just then his cell phone rang.

"I think we just got our break. NYPD spoke to a neighbour who saw Eric Hayes leave the house last night at 11.30 and he wasn't back until 3am."

"Which gives him plenty of time to kill Sophie." Stella added.

Stella and Flack arrived at Oaktree house followed by Danny and Lindsay.

"Ok Monroe and I will go up to the door, see how co-operative they are. You guys take the back.

"Can't wait to get this guy in handcuffs." Flack said as they walked to the door.

"You and me both." Lindsay said as she knocked on the door.

"Can I help you?" Eric said gruffly as he opened the door slightly.

"Detective's Flack and Monroe; we need to ask you a few more questions." Flack flashed his badge.

"I have nothing to say." Eric sneered and began to shut the door.

"That's a shame because we have a warrant to search the premises." Flack said catching the door with his foot.

Stella and Danny had come in the back door. When they all entered the hallway there was an eerie silence. The previously screaming toddlers were sitting watching TV in silence. Something wasn't right. Scanning the living room and kitchen Flack noticed some of the older kids weren't there.

"Where are the other kids?"

"How the hell would I know?"

"Sorry; I thought you worked here."

Lindsay saw a young girl appear at the top of the stairs. She looked petrified and was crying. She went towards the stairs and Eric ran after her.

Where the hell do you think you're going?" Danny said grabbing and cuffing him.

Lindsay reached the top of the stairs and knelt down in front of the girl.

"I'm a police officer; I'm here to help you." She handed the girl her badge.

"He hurt her."

"Eric did?"

The girl nodded.

"I need you to tell me who he hurt."

By this point Flack and Stella had come up the stairs which alarmed the girl.

"It's ok; they're police officers too. Tell me who did Eric hurt?"

The girl pointed to a door along the hall. Lindsay stood and walked slowly to the door which was ajar.


End file.
